To EMH or not to EMH that is the ?

[jpolak]

I know that there are two main schools of thought on this matter. Some love it, while others say avoid that park at all cost. So what is your belief/experience with emh? We are going at the end of August and trying to decide on what would be the best strategy. Thanks a bunch

 

[bcsmom]

I know that there are two main schools of thought on this matter. Some love it, while others say avoid that park at all cost. So what is your belief/experience with emh? We are going at the end of August and trying to decide on what would be the best strategy. Thanks a bunch

I like to do the evening EMH. I think there is a lot less people late at night. What we do is go to the park in the morning, have lunch, and then go back to our room for a swim. We either go to dinner at another resort or go back to the park for dinner. Then we stay our really late. I love to see all the lights in the park at night anyway, and I like to sleep late.

 

[MAKmom]

[What would you do your first day down. June 21 we arrive I hope at WDW by noon. Now MK has EE June 22 so I am going there. MGM has Evening extra hours so what park should we go to that afternoon?

 

[noladave]

Definitely make morning EMH, you can get so much done. Hopefully, you have park hoppers, that way you can move to another park by mid-day, as the morning EMH park will get very crowded.

Evening EMH is much more hit and miss - since most people like to stay out late, and fewer attractions are open during evening EMH, you can still have very long standy wait lines of 60+ minutes. However, FP's do start over at EMH, so you can grab a FP and walk around until your FP start time.

 

[RobInBigKC]

I agree with some of the above and have some theories of my own.

If you have a park hopper, go to the morning EMH's and plan on jumping to another park (preferably one that had EMH the day before) when that park gets crowded.

Go to the evening EMH's at MK and Epcot but don't expect waits to be much less than they were in the daytime (fewer guests can ride but fewer attractions are open) until late, late in the evening EMH hours. Don't go to the evening EMH's at DS and AK (not enough attractions open to handle the crowds that stay). Although on avoiding AK's evening EMH, I have to admit I'm not sure how EE will impact my strategy -- that may open the park up enough to make it worth going.

-- Rob

 

[ciera321]

I agree with some of the above and have some theories of my own.

If you have a park hopper, go to the morning EMH's and plan on jumping to another park (preferably one that had EMH the day before) when that park gets crowded.

Go to the evening EMH's at MK and Epcot but don't expect waits to be much less than they were in the daytime (fewer guests can ride but fewer attractions are open) until late, late in the evening EMH hours. Don't go to the evening EMH's at DS and AK (not enough attractions open to handle the crowds that stay). Although on avoiding AK's evening EMH, I have to admit I'm not sure how EE will impact my strategy -- that may open the park up enough to make it worth going.

-- Rob

Totally agree!!! The 2 times we did MGM EMH in the evening, the lines were very long, perhaps longer than when we were there earlier in the day. Going to the morning EMH works so much better for us since we don't mind getting up early, and a lot of folks do...

 

[mattsdragon]

EPCOT evening EMH, not so great
MK evening EMH, great, got on all the mountains with little wait at all.

It depends on how much is open at the park, and you have to give it a little time, let the crowds lighten up a bit (like 15 minutes after the closing time, the lines really start thinning)

 

[Lizzybee]

I found early EMH hours and MK to be absolutely essential, especially during Spring Break/Easter week 2005. We did not make use of any other EMH. I felt MGM and Epcot were quite manageable without using EMH. Early EMH at AK was a disaster. I blame this partly on the fact that we tried to use early EMH at AK on the Saturday before Easter. If we didn't have an ADR for Donald's we probably would have changed plans after waiting an hour for a bus because the buses were filling up at POFQ and other depots before arriving at ours. Once we got to AK, everyone was already making a mad dash for the Safari. At MK, people seemed to go to all different areas of the park. Over Spring Break, we arrived at MK at 6:50 for a 7:00am EMH, the park had been open until 3:00am the night before for late EMH. We were able to ride IASW, Peter Pan, Dumbo, see Philharmagic, saw at least 7 characters including autographs and pics, tea cups, raceway cars, eat breakfast, and ride Buzz by 10:30am. I think early EMH at MK is completely worth it. Hope that helps. Have a blast!

 

[eeyoreiscool]

We generally like doing the night ones as a couple. With kids the morning EMH are a little easier since they like to go to sleep early and get up early. We haven't really had bad crowds at any park when we have gone.

 

[jpolak]

The evening emhs are probably out of the question since we will be traveling with dd who will be almost three. The morning emh at mk we will probably do provided everyone wakes up and we are able to get out the door.